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Topic: Scandinavian styled knives (Read 1462 times)

Lately I've grown fond of Scandinavian styled knives, It started a few of years ago with a Fallkniven F-1 from Pat (the Bushcraft boys) who was a vender here, the F-1 turned out to be a real joy to use, next was an Enzo Trapper, then a Condor Wood Law, the F-1 has a Nordic styled blade but is flat ground with a convex edge, the trapper and the Wood Law are both Scandivex edge grinds. All are about the same blade design in thickness, length, and width, I'm not a fan of overly big knives, these are all just under four inches in cutting edge length, about 1/8" thick, and weigh in at about five ounces which make them easy to control and nimble to use. They also share another likeness, the blade shape on all of them are close to the description of the best Bushcraft knife that Mors writes about in his book on Bushcraft, and the basis for the popular but very expensive Skokum Bush Tool. I been wanting a Bush Tool ever since I read Mors description in his book and saw him demonstrate his on a video he made, but I couldn't justify the $400.00 ~ $500.00 price tag for one, but in the last few years or so several knife makers have offered that style of blade including the ones I've already mentioned. Now two more Knife companies have come out with their representations of Mors design, the first is (I believe) Fox River knives, theirs is a semi custom and close clone of the bush tool and sells from the maker for about $275.00 depending on scale options, the other is American Blade Co. which offers three models of the design called the Forest knife, besides scale options there's a compact model with a blade length of 3.86 inches, the regular Forest knife with a 4-1/4" blade, and the Forest ll with a 5" blade. The knives are made of A-2 steel, triple tempered and with a Rockwell of 58~60, they have a stainless pommel and the fit and finish is absolutely perfect, the knives are made for American Knife Co. by Bark River Knife & Tool Co., the reviews have all been excellent, MSR is about $300.00 depending on scale options, but street prices are running about $190.00 on average.

There are some nice ones there. I had one a few years ago. It was a Wood ________ something. Scandi of course and sharp as all get out when I got it. No guard and I quickly learned that it was not a good knife for gutting larger animals as it got slippery and a person could slide their hand over the blade quite easily. Traded it straight up for a Grohmann. Anyway I do have a few that are kind of like what you describe. A Spyderco Bushcrafter, a Bushlore by Bernie Garland, and a couple of others. After using all of them the Garland is my favorite of this style knife. It is the recurve model and just works really well dressing animals and performing wood chores around a campfire. It isn't the best camp kitchen knife but will suffice.

These are as close to Scandinavian knives as I care to get.

I did notice that Knives Ship Free is selling the American Knife Co. knives at closeout for half price or less.

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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. (Mark Twain)

I have recently become interested in Scandinavian style knives, still in the looking stage but will purchase one soon. Frankly i will use it some then it will go into the knife display case with my growing collection i have yet to frame so i can hang it above the bar, along with some old case knives, a green river butcher and a canadian trapper style.

Scandinavian grinds excel for cutting or carving things out of wood, but in my opinion they SUCK for almost everything else I use a knife for.

Edge grinds is an interesting subject, what type of edge do you think you like best on a general duty knife ?

Well, that's a good question and in thinking about it for a bit, I think I'd nominate the thin-bladed, full-convex grind like that found on the lowly Opinel folder. They're very lightweight for their size and they'll do almost anything and do it well.....from peeling and slicing vegetables and fruit to whittling a camp gadget or field-dressing and skinning squirrels & deer. They're not designed for battoninig gnarly oak stumps, but they will easily take tapping through smaller kindling-sized sticks. Always worked for me, so what's not to like?

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The only chance you got at a education is listenin' to me talk!Augustus McCrae.....Texas Ranger Lonesome Dove, TX

I guess having grown up with hollow ground blades they are still my favorite. They work well for gutting, skinning, food processing, and are easy to sharpen. Some folks say they are fragile but I have never found that to be the case for the things that I do with a knife.

Convex is good. As Wolfy notes they work well and I think there is little difference in doing the same things that a hollow ground does. My Opinels work well and sharpen up with a couple of licks on the mouse pad and sandpaper or the steel.

I would like to try a knife with a chisel grind just to see how it works.

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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. (Mark Twain)

The hollow grind is my all time favorite, too. I don't find them 'fragile,' but I seldom use mine as a screwdriver or prybar, either. For a general-purpose do-it-all grind though.....I still like the kitchen knife handiness and performance found in the very shallow convex ground blade. Just me and what I appreciate......like everyone else, we all have our priorities and preferences.

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The only chance you got at a education is listenin' to me talk!Augustus McCrae.....Texas Ranger Lonesome Dove, TX

The hollow grind is my all time favorite, too. I don't find them 'fragile,' but I seldom use mine as a screwdriver or prybar, either. For a general-purpose do-it-all grind though.....I still like the kitchen knife handiness and performance found in the very shallow convex ground blade. Just me and what I appreciate......like everyone else, we all have our priorities and preferences.

That would make sense, we're from a generation that grew up with hollow ground blades, mostly on hunting knives, back in the day all you could find in knives in most stores were hunting knives, fishing knives, or pocket knives, today there's a knife for every type of cutting task, trying to figure out which grind is best for you mind boggling. I watched a pretty interesting video interview with a well known knife maker who was discussing the specifics of different edge grinds, especially interesting was his take on Nordic and Scandinavian knife grinds, most interesting was his explanation of the history of Mora Knife blades then and now. Gotta go for now, but remind me later and we can get into it.